from scratch baking and cooking blog

Monthly Archives: March 2013

After along day of work, especially after what I call a “Manic Monday”, I yearn to bake. An afternoon of baking is the cure to get my mind off of everything else. The scooping and leveling off of flour and measuring of ingredients soothes me. Peanut butter has to be one of my favorite ingredients in baking and cookies well who doesn’t love cookies. These cookies are lower in saturated fat then most peanut butter cookies, since I removed the butter and replaced it with no sugar added applesauce, plus they are made with whole wheat flour which is an added bonus!

Ingredients:

1 cup Creamy Peanut Butter (pick your favorite) I love aldi’s brand

1 cup Sugar (or use half sugar & half splenda)

1 cup whole wheat flour

1/4 Tsp of Baking Soda

1 TB of Toasted Wheat Germ

1 Egg

1/2 cup of Natural Applesauce (no sugar added)

1 Tsp of Mexican Vanilla

Scoop number 24 makes ( 18 Large Cookies) ****this is what I used***

Vanilla Sugar ***sprinkle lightly

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350. Sift flour, wheat germ, and baking soda together in one bowl, set aside.

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I was asked to make mini strawberry mimosa cupcakes for a wedding shower tasting. So I knew exactly where to turn to for my research. I love Martha Stewart’s recipes and I own her cupcake recipe book. So of course this recipe was inspired by her Strawberry Cupcakes on page 146. Years ago I rented this cookbook at the library before I purchased it. After I made one recipe I knew I had to buy this cookbook. Here is the link below if you are interested in her cookbook as well. http://www.marthastewart.com/275736/martha-stewarts-cupcakes/@center/276944/cupcakesContinue reading →

Tomorrow is Registered Dietitian Day. In honor of recognizing my fellow dietitians, I decided to make some healthy bread as a special treat! So if you know a Registered Dietitian make sure to show them some love and give them a hug and thank them for what they do!

Ingredients:

1 cup all purpose flour

¾ Cup 100% Whole Wheat Flour ( I used King Arthur) ***Spoon out the flour***

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My colleague gave me this recipe the other day and I couldn’t wait to try it!!! Thank you Caitlin !! Good thing since, I was running low on bread for my husband’s lunch sandwiches. I decided instead of stopping at the store on the way home from work, I would give this recipe a try. I think if you try this recipe you will love it . Really the instructions are very simple and all you need is a little time for the bread to ferment. The end result will be worth the wait!

Ingredients:

2 cup of bread flour ( use a spoon to scoop the flour into the measuring cup**** do not pack the flour*****

2 cups of warm water

1/2 tsp of salt

1 TB of sugar or honey

1 TB of dry yeast

Mix the above ingredients together in a bowl and let ferment overnight or while you are at work (8 to 12 hours). I did let mine sit for 12 hours.

Make sure to cover the liquid mixture with plastic wrap while resting.

After mixture has fermented for allotted time (see picture below)

Add:

2 Cups of whole wheat flour plus any additional you will need for kneading.

Knead for 2 to 4 minutes by hand (until dough is no longer sticky). Preheat oven to 500 degrees.

Shape dough to form in a bread loaf pan. I used a 8″ pan. Make sure to spray the pan with Pam or cooking spray.

Place the dough in the pan and cover once again for about an hour to 2 hours until the dough doubles (mine only took an hour). The secret is to having the oven preheat while the dough rise!!! This will cut the time for rising in half.

Once the dough doubles remove the plastic wrap and place the bread in the oven, cover with foil for 20 minute.

After 20 minutes have elapsed remove the foil and decrease the oven to temperature to 400 degrees and bake for an additional 20 minutes.

Let the bread sit in pan for 5 minutes and then cool on wire rack. Enjoy !